Kendall Henderson leads Derek Lawrence during the late stages of the boys cross country race. Lawrence made his move during the last half-mile to finish as the first Patriot across the finish line on Oct 9.
— Photo by Ted Scheve

Running is a sport where when the race nears its end and the legs begin to feel heavy, good runners dig deep inside and keep the legs moving forward.

The Massac County High School Cross Country program is on the move, and itself is moving forward.

For the last several seasons, former-head coach Janet Foster through sheer determination, kept the cross country program stitched together — this through some rather lean times where the boys or girls either didn’t or barely had enough runners to even qualify to score at the meets. It takes at least five runners to be eligible to receive a team score.

Though Foster is still involved as a volunteer assistant coach, this season former Massac track and cross-country star and standout Lindsay Zeiler took over the head coaching reins.

Zeiler’s energy and zeal for running itself has breathed an exciting new push for the Massac team. A prime example of this is during a meet, Zeiler can be found racing from point-to-point all over the course during both the boys’ and girls’ races to spur on each of her runners. She covers so much ground during a typical meet, it could be argued that she completes more miles than the competitors themselves.

This season, the boys’ teams have larger numbers and, when everyone is there, can feature a quality first through fifth finish that produces a highly competitive team score.